Save the image in a format that supports transparent backgrounds. Use the magic wand to remove any white still left inside letters. Paste the signature into a new document with a transparent backgroundħ. Use the magic wand to select the area around the signatureĦ.

You also may need to straighten the image at this point so it is level and will line up with horizontal lines on paper. You probably want to use a high resolution for best results. This will give you some options to choose the best looking image.

Sign a piece of paper several times and then scan it in. I used a blue gel pen and got decent results. When you shrink it down, it will look better. This is harder than it sounds because you’ll be very critical of the way it looks. Digital electronic signatures are an electronic way to prove that someone signed something even if the end product is being transmitted through a network where malicious people may try to tamper with it. Note: When people talk about “digital signatures” they usually aren’t referring to a scanned version of your handwriting. I’m sure you can do it with other programs as well. I’ll be using Photoshop simply because you probably know someone who has it and wouldn’t mind doing this for you. I’m going to walk you through the “easy” way. If you make it large enough and scan at a high enough resolution, you don’t have to worry about it looking bad when it gets printed. The easy way to do it is to scan in your signature and remove the background.

The “right” way would be to send your signature to a company that will create a truetype font of your entire signature so you can print it at any size and still have the beautiful vector drawn lines. If you want to create a scanned electronic version of your signature, there are several ways to do it. We also have a number of other articles about going paperless and one on Digital Signatures and Encryption that might be useful. If you like this article you might also enjoy our post about how to use your signature to sign documents in Acrobat.

How to make the digital signature